The frontal styling is a matter of taste, of course, but the rest of the vehicle is modern--if not especially Jeep-like to our eyes. Or as one passenger remarked, "It looks kinda Japanese--is that good or bad?"

Other observations from our three-day tenure with the new compact Jeep:

The interior is superb, with high-quality materials--and it's a huge step up from the (admittedly less pricey) Dodge Dart

Rear-seat room isn't huge, though four adults will fit with a bit of horse trading

The 25 to 29 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat, on the other hand, is ample--though slightly compromised for tall items by a steeply raked rear window

Unlike the premium European compact crossovers we tested, the Cherokee comes with tall all-weather tires, just what we needed in the snow

The all-wheel drive is as capable as any Subaru we've tested, probably more so--and in the Northeast, that's high praise

It takes awhile to adapt to the ventilation controls, which are split between knobs on the lower part of the dash and finer adjustments in the central touchscreen

The Luxury Group, at $1,595, added premium leather seats, ventilated in the front; a power-operated liftgate; memory for the driver's seat, exterior mirrors, and radio; and high-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps, which were excellent.

The 271-horsepower 3.2-liter V-6 engine was a $1,495 addition, though it did come with twin chrome-tipped exhaust outlets.